"Taking the Charge" in NBA Basketball

There are some obvious individual measures that should without doubt be part of the official NBA statistics -- with some form of plus/minus data topping the list for us. However an even easier number to introduce would be foul drawing, and fans would relish and indeed have been clamoring to see data on which NBA players draw the most offensive fouls from their opponents.

If you can handle "un-official" statistics (which is to say we're missing video for parts of a handful of games and have some to be expected variance in data collection to begin with), then keep reading!

Leading NBA Players in drawing Offensive Fouls

For the NBA 2005-06 season to this point and with the aforementioned caveats, here are your league leaders:

2005-06 Regular Season

Rank

Team

Player

Off.FoulsDrawn

1

PHO

Bell

76

2

CHI

Nocioni

67

3

MIL

Bogut

65

4

UTA

Collins

63

5

GSW

Dunleavy

63

6

DET

B.Wallace

50

7

NJN

Krstic

50

8

GSW

Fisher

49

9

NOK

Mason

49

10

MEM

Battier

48

11

SAS

Ginobili

48

12

TOR

Peterson

48

13

CHI

Hinrich

46

14

PHI

Iverson

44

15

TOR

Bosh

43

16

WAS

Daniels

41

17

NJN

Collins

39

18

SAS

Bowen

39

19

NOK

Claxton

38

20

WAS

Haywood

36

21

UTA

Okur

36

22

MIA

Haslem

36

23

PHO

Nash

36

24

SAC

Miller

35

25

IND

O'Neal

35

26

DEN

Miller

35

27

POR

Khryapa

35

28

PHO

Thomas

34

29

WAS

Arenas

33

30

PHI

Korver

32

30

CLE

Varejao

32

30

UTA

Williams

32

When we ran this at midseason, we were expecting it to be very tight at the top, but as it turned out, there was a runaway leader in Raja Bell of the Suns, followed by one main chaser in part time player Jarron Collins of the Jazz, and Andres Nocioni a distant third.

For the full season, Bell is still on top, but Chicago's main flopper has quickly made up ground to finish second.

It's pretty safe to say that all of the players on this list are winners in a sense, with the right attitude to the game and thus good guys to have on a team.

The character of a player to "take one for the team" is often discussed, but hard to quantify...offensive fouls drawn may be a good place to start.

Since a number of the "enforcers" of the NBA and hustle players who do often seem to be the first to put their bodies in the way of an oncoming player (and let's be honest, we're talking freight trains in some cases) don't play extensive minutes, it makes sense to look at the leaders on an Offensive Foul Drawn per X Minutes" basis.

Minimum: 10 Offensive Fouls Drawn

Rank

Team

Player

Off.FoulsDrawn

Minutes/Off.Foul Drawn

1

CLE

Varejao

32

23.7

2

DAL

Armstrong

25

24.9

3

UTA

Collins

63

27.4

4

SEA

Fortson

10

27.6

5

MIL

Smith

29

30.5

6

PHI

Randolph

15

32.5

7

CHI

Nocioni

67

33.4

8

MIN

Madsen

20

33.7

9

MIN

Reed

20

35.2

10

CHI

Harrington

23

35.8

11

MIL

Bogut

65

36.1

12

ATL

Ivey

27

36.1

13

SAS

Ginobili

48

37.7

14

MIN

Hudson

21

38.0

15

ORL

Hill

16

38.3

16

PHO

Bell

76

38.8

17

MEM

Cardinal

10

39.9

18

NYK

Taylor

30

40.3

19

NOK

Vroman

10

40.5

20

NOK

Andersen

14

40.7

So Bell places a respectable 16th in the league on a "minutes per offensive foul drawn" basis, but Nocioni outpaces him which is why with the increased playing time the midseason gap shrunk!

There are some notable role players who pile them up at an even fast clip, headed by Anderson Varejao, who one day may get substantial minutes and thus be a threat for raw total leader.

We do also add a few of the names that would be most guessed for this kind of activity -- the Madsen, Fortson, and Othella Harringtons of the NBA.

Team by Team Leaders in drawing Offensive Fouls

All right, the league leaders are fun, but you want to know who's been getting knocked to the floor most often on a team by team basis, and also whether offensive fouls have any correlation with team success.

Team

Off.FoulsDrawn

Off.FoulsCommitted

NetOff.Foul

Top Three in drawing the Offensive Foul

Chicago

273

211

+62

Nocioni 67 - Hinrich 46 - Chandler 25

Utah

252

200

+52

Collins 63 - Okur 36 - Williams 32

Phoenix

247

133

+114

Bell 76 - Nash 36 - K.Thomas 34

Golden State

216

197

+19

Dunleavy 63 - Fisher 49 - Richardson 27

Toronto

215

194

+21

Peterson 48 - Bosh 43 - James 24

Washington

213

200

+13

Daniels 41 - Haywood 36 - Arenas 33

New Orleans

199

179

+20

Mason 49 - Claxton 38 - Paul 22

Milwaukee

193

183

+10

Bogut 65 - Smith 29 - Simmons 16

Charlotte

192

169

+23

Wallace 29 - Felton 28 - Jones 25

New Jersey

190

165

+25

Krstic 50 - Collins 39 - Jefferson 24

Sacramento

185

134

+51

Miller 35 - Bibby 29 - Martin 27

Atlanta

183

216

-33

Pachulia 31 - J.Smith 27 - Ivey 27

Denver

179

180

-1

Miller 35 - Camby 27 - Buckner 26

Memphis

178

165

+13

Battier 48 - Gasol 23 - E.Jones 23

New York

177

295

-118

Taylor 30 - Robinson 23 - Marbury 20

Philadelphia

176

122

+54

Iverson 44 - Korver 32 - Iguodala 26

San Antonio

176

138

+38

Ginobili 48 - Bowen 39 - Nesterovic 12

Miami

171

192

-21

Haslem 36 - Posey 31 - Wade 18

Orlando

165

194

-29

Stevenson 31 - Battie 20 - Hill 16

Dallas

155

169

-14

Armstrong 25 - Harris 21 - Howard 17

Cleveland

155

185

-30

Varejao 32 - Snow 25 - Gooden 20

L.A. Lakers

154

189

-35

Brown 25 - Vujacic 25 - Cook 24

Minnesota

145

212

-67

Hudson 21 - Madsen 20 - Reed 20

Detroit

144

128

+16

B.Wallace 50 - Hamilton 26 - R.Wallace 14

Boston

144

199

-55

Pierce 25 - Jefferson 19 - LaFrentz 18

Portland

140

189

-49

Khryapa 35 - Ratliff 19 - Jack 13

Seattle

126

196

-70

Collison 18 - Ridnour 16 - Allen 14

Indiana

122

220

-98

O'Neal 35 - Granger 15 - Croshere 15

L.A. Clippers

112

182

-70

Cassell 18 - Brand 14 - Ross 11

Houston

106

165

-59

Wesley 16 - Yao 12 - Howard 12

And so it's the Chicago Bulls with their torrid defensive intensity in the second half of the season who come out on top for most offensive fouls drawn. The Utah Jazz with their bruising "big" lineup are also adept at drawing the charge.

The Phoenix Suns though have really been one of the two top team stories of the season along with Detroit's magnificent performance. The thing is that the mainstream is still thinking Phoenix is the uber-offense, no defense team of a year ago, when in fact they are playing a different style of game nowadays. Last year for instance, we had them drawing 135 offensive fouls on the season, which they nearly doubled this season! They also lead in "best net" for offensive fouls by a wide margin.

...and if we couldn't have guessed anyway, the Knicks were worst in the league in net offensive fouls, thanks in part to the league leader in committing the offensive foul, Eddy Curry.

We'll have more to say about fouls in future articles (picture things like "Flop %" and "Kings of the Loose Ball collisions"), but to summarize it looks like this:

players who are among the leaders in offensive fouls drawn are likely to have positive on court/off court influence

the correlation between team totals for drawing offensive fouls and net offensive fouls to wins is limited

it takes one bad ass/crazy dude to stand in the way of an NBA superstar driving full speed to the basket!